By Akani Nkuna
The South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Solly Mapaila on Thursday led calls for the immediate release of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Maduro and Flores were detained by US forces on Saturday during a US military operation in Venezuela and flown to New York, where they appeared in court on Tuesday on narcotrafficking-related charges.
“We are here to condemn US aggression against Venezuela and its democratically elected president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. We demand their immediate release,” Mapaila said.
Several organisations, led by the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), staged a protest outside the United States embassy in Pretoria in solidarity with Venezuela.
Protesters warned that the US action set a dangerous precedent that could undermine international law, and urged the international community to intervene.
SACP spokesperson Mbulelo Mandlana told Inside Politics it
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